tirsdag 27. juli 2010

Happiness

In this period of summer vacations it is quite understandable to engage in the business of happiness. Some days ago the prestigious Forbes.com published the result of a Gallup poll involving thousands of respondents in each of the 170 countries concerned. People were asked about how they had felt the previous days. Based on the answers, and in particular the percentage of individuals who were "thriving", Forbes has published the ranking of the World's Happiest Countries.

I'd say there are no major surprises in the first five places, occupied by Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands in this order. Of course one might say that these are four Nordic countries plus one. Others (like me) could say that there are four EU countries - plus one. Both observations might be right to some extent, should we suppose (just for a sunny summer moment) that happiness can be measured.

mandag 26. juli 2010

Football World Cup

Most European teams, as you recall, suffered during the group phase at the World Cup in South Africa. As there were many Norwegians supporting the different European teams, their early setback led to disappointment and a whole range of comments. Some of these even hinted at detecting a connection between this weak football showing and the economic crisis in Europe.
Now that European teams have taken places 1-2-3 in the World Cup, I hope I could go as far as suggesting that this outstanding result might be taken as a sign of economic recovery on our continent.